Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and François Hollande, French president, will make a joint address to the European Parliament Wednesday on the refugee crisis. "This is a historic visit for historically difficult times," said Martin Schulz, the German SPD a centre-left president of the parliament. "The EU is facing immense challenges and requires strong commitment from its leaders."

The Eurozone economy continued to make steady progress in September, as solid gains in output and new orders supported further job creation. However, the rate of growth eased to a four-month low. The rate of UK economic growth slowed to a 30-month low in September, according to PMI (purchasing managers' index) survey data

There is no doubt that the emissions cheating scandal, disclosed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last month, is a huge blow to the reputation of the leading German car group and is also damaging to the 'Made in Germany' brand. However, short of fraud by the industry as a whole in Germany, it's unlikely to inflict long-term damage on the economy.

Euro Area annual inflation/ deflation is expected to be -0.1% in September 2015, down from 0.1% in August 2015, according to a flash estimate today from Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union. Also today it was reported that the Euro Area (EA19) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 11.0% in August 2015, stable compared to July 2015, and down from 11.5% in August 2014.

The Euro Area manufacturing sector continued to make steady progress at the end of the third quarter, as production and new business both expanded at modest rates. Cost pressures shifted to the downside, however, with input costs and selling prices falling during the month. Meanwhile, the UK manufacturing sector was subdued.

Europe has 345 universities in the world top 800, meaning its institutions comprise more than two-fifths of the expanded Times Higher Education (THE) ranking in the 2015/16 edition. Among the Irish universities, UCD (University College Dublin) has closed the gap with its main rival, Trinity College (University of Dublin), to 16 ranks.

Destatis, the German federal statistics office, on Thursday reported that the population of Germany rose by 430,000 people in 2014 on a year earlier (+0.5%) to stand at 81.2m inhabitants — the highest population increase since 1992, when the rise had been markedly higher in absolute terms (700,000 people). In 2013 there had been an increase of 244,000 people (+0.3%). The population in 1992 was at 80.3m.

It has been estimated that annual shadow economy tax losses in Europe amount to €454bn or 8.6% of tax revenues — ranging from 31% in Bulgaria to 4.4% in Austria. Earlier this month Pierre Moscovici, European commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, urged EU member states to tighten up VAT collection after new figures in a study showed €168bn was lost in 2013.

Flash PMI survey data pointed to steady growth of the Euro Area economy at the end of the third quarter. Moreover, faster growth of new work and backlogs of orders point to continued expansion in coming months. Selling prices were meanwhile stable despite sharply reduced commodity prices. France continued to lag the upturn, but saw growth pick up from the near-stagnation seen in August. Growth slowed in Germany and in the rest of the region.